Counter culture talk courtesy of a Catholic convert.
The West crumbles but, as usual, God’s got a fix.

Monday, September 30, 2013

"Are We Obsessed?" Asks Dr. Janet Smith In Response To Pope Francis

A charitable and practical guide to recent controversial comments made by Pope Francis, written by Dr. Janet Smith.

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Are We Obsessed?

September 25, 2013

Janet E. Smith, Ph.D.

A few passages from Pope Francis’ famous interview published in
America have unsettled some people
for many reasons. My reason for being unsettled is that it would not be a
complete distortion to say that I have been “obsessed” with the issues of
abortion, contraception, and homosexuality for nearly all of my professional
life. I prefer the terms “dedicated” or “committed,” of course, but whatever
word is appropriate, I have long thought that helping people understand why abortion,
contraception, and homosexual acts are not in accord with God’s plans for human
happiness is a very effective way of drawing people closer to the Lord and to
the Church, and thus, more or less, most of my adult life, I have been
evangelizing in this way.

Enough about me. Let me talk about the legions of pro-lifers
who run pregnancy help centers (which outnumber abortion clinics), of those who
host pro-life websites and give pro-life talks, of those who try to get
pro-life politicians elected, of those who do the hard work of trying to find
jobs, housing, and other kinds of support for single mothers, of those who
provide healing ministries to women who have had abortions, such as Rachel
Weeping. Let me talk about teachers of Natural
Family Planning and the Theology of
the Body and abstinence educators. Let me talk about those who work for and
promote Courage, a compassionate ministry to those who experience same sex
attraction and about those who against strangely strong odds make the case
against same sex “marriages.” Let me talk about those who use Facebook, blogs, and comments on blogs
to try to dialogue with those who reject and even despise Church teaching and
those who defend it.

I know these people and most of them radiate the love for
Christ and the Church that the Holy Father desires. They sacrifice their time,
talent, and energy because they love Christ and those who hate Christ and those
who don’t know Christ. Undoubtedly some pro-lifers and some opponents of
contraception and some who crusade against the widespread acceptance of
homosexuality are angry people ready to condemn others as unredeemable sinners,
but I suspect they are few and far between in the US at least. Although I have
seen rare postings on the internet, written by putative Christians that are
very unchristian, I have not met any such individuals in “real life.”

In fact, I don’t think the Holy Father was speaking about my
friends, when he states:

We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and
the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much
about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about
these issues, we have to talk about them in a context.

My friends definitely talk about these issues “in context,”
in fact in many contexts. Again, their reason for boldly and sacrificially and
ardently addressing these issues is precisely because they love Christ and the
Church and want others to do so. They are trying to save people, to save them
from ignorance about Church teaching, to save them from serious sin, to save
them from missing out on the great joys of accepting Christ as their savior and
the Church as their home. And—praise God—sometimes they succeed. In fact, my
own reversion to the Church was greatly facilitated by an anti-Catholic
professor who patiently argued with students that truth exists. It pained him
that many of his students converted to Catholicism, once they came to accept
that truth exists, and even moral truths that require most students to change
their behavior radically.

Pope Francis is right that in some contexts proclaiming the
Gospel is a powerful aid to conversion to moral goodness. For instance, many of
those who do counseling outside of abortion clinics approach the women entering
and say: “I am here to help you realize that God loves you and, if you are
pregnant, he loves the child you are carrying. He trusts you to be the loving
mother your child needs. I am here to help you find whatever you need to help
you be that loving mother. There is nothing you have done that God won’t
forgive.” That is a powerful and effective approach. It can often be costly to
deliver what is needed but I know pro-lifers who definitely go the extra mile.

He also said:

The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission
of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.

Again, I don’t think this statement refers to my friends
since there is nothing “disjointed” about the way they present doctrines nor do
they “impose” them “insistently.” Rather, they study hard to learn the deep
anthropological truths that John Paul II labored so tirelessly to teach that
justify the Church’s teaching. They make the call to conscience that John Paul
II makes: man’s dignity resides in his ability to know the truth and to live
consciously and freely in accord with it. They call people to live in accord
with the natural greatness that God gave them. They do not make threats of
damnation or make calls for blind obedience; they lay out the evidence,
scientific, sociological, psychological, theological and philosophical. There
is no imposing; there is, rather, intelligent instruction and persuasion.

I also began to realize that the Holy Father was not
speaking of the same context in which I live and labor when he said:

I say this also thinking about the preaching and content of our
preaching. A beautiful homily, a genuine sermon must begin with the first
proclamation, with the proclamation of salvation. There is nothing more solid,
deep and sure than this proclamation.

While I understand that preaching the love of Christ is
central to Christianity, and while, of course, I am delighted that Pope Francis,
as Benedict and John Paul II and a host of popes before him, have preached this
relentlessly, I am a bit surprised that Pope Francis thinks an effective way to
promote Christianity would be to enthusiastically teach that Christ came to
save us. He seems to think that many people are hesitant to embrace
Christianity or Catholicism because they believe that they are beyond
redemption and that the Church is a judgmental, intolerant institution that
won’t accept them. Now, it may be that many people think the Church is
judgmental and intolerant, but my impression is that most people do not think
they are sinners beyond redemption. In fact, I think most people think they are
not sinners and not in need of redemption. They do not think having abortions,
using contraception, using pornography, fornicating, masturbating, or engaging
in homosexual acts are immoral actions. They think what they are doing is fine
and they are fine just as they are.

I am not suggesting that we should be shouting from the
rooftops that these are serious sins and that those who commit them knowingly
and freely and who don’t repent of them will face an unpleasant eternity, to
say the least. That is the truth, of course, but it is not the truth that the
crusaders I know, speak. Rather, as I stated, they give reasons for the
teachings; rational, persuasive, appealing reasons.

The Holy Father continues his remarks about homilies and
says:

Then [after preaching salvation] you have to do catechesis. Then you
can draw even a moral consequence. But the proclamation of the saving love of
God comes before moral and religious imperatives. Today sometimes it seems that
the opposite order is prevailing. The homily is the touchstone to measure the
pastor’s proximity and ability to meet his people, because those who preach
must recognize the heart of their community and must be able to see where the
desire for God is lively and ardent. The message of the Gospel, therefore, is
not to be reduced to some aspects that, although relevant, on their own do not
show the heart of the message of Jesus Christ.

Pope Francis finds the homily a proper place to teach moral
truths but thinks priests have gotten the order wrong. Where is he hearing
these homilies that hammer on moral truths at the expense of preaching the
gospel? For some time now I have been trying to help seminarians and priests
preach on the difficult moral truths. One reason it is we struggle is that
virtually none of us have heard it done! We have heard homilies on
abortion—perhaps at most once a year—while homilies on contraception and
homosexual acts are so rare as to cause astonishment and generally earn the
pastor an influx of hate mail.

Some people have proposed that the Holy Father is speaking
out of his experience of a Latin American culture. I don’t know if priests in
Latin America incessantly give moralistic homilies without reference to the
good news of Christ, but clearly that is the scenario that Pope Francis has in
mind. More and more priests in the US are realizing that their parishioners
need to hear the truth about morality proclaimed boldly and clearly. The
seminarians and I are making every effort to tie moral teachings to the Gospel.
It is not hard to do since many passages such as “keep my commandments” lend
themselves to a wide range of issues. But displaying the requisite sensitivity
is a challenge. I require seminarians always to mention that the fact that so
many commit serious sexual sins can be explained by the pernicious influence of
our culture, particularly the influence of the entertainment world, but
increasingly by the policies of our government as well. I require the
seminarians to invite people to confession to experience the liberating and
healing power of the sacrament.

In fact, Pope Francis’ own daily homilies that focus on
greed, gossip, and laziness, for instance, completely won my heart. I saw that
he realized that Catholics need to be reminded daily to let their faith
influence every action of our lives—and he regularly invites people to
confession. He often preaches about the reality of the devil. I wonder if he
knows that American Catholics are as likely to use contraception and view
pornography as they are to be greedy and to gossip. The devil has us in his
grip there. Mention of those sins, too, need to be a regular part of homilies.

This is not to say that neither my friends nor I have
anything to learn from what the Holy Father has said. While I said above that
the people I am speaking of “radiate the love of Christ,” I must admit, and not
slowly, that such is not always true. We get angry, impatient, dismissive, and
self-righteous at times. We are not saints yet, just saints in the making. It
is undoubtedly true that some of us love truth more than we love those we
serve. That is not a Christian attitude. We need to truly approach each of
those we attempt to serve with love for them, with a humble understanding that
our approach is not always the best and most compassionate, and with the
knowledge that God works patiently with each of us and that we must be patient
too.

As Dave Sloan—a friend who is one of the best workers in the
vineyard—stated in a post on Facebook:
“People do not need to be convinced that they are lost, and they do not need to
be convinced that they are wounded. All that is needed is for them to believe
that they are known at a deep level and they are loved at a deep level. When
they are convinced of these things they are ready enough to reveal their wounds
and their sense of being lost. This is messy, and painfully difficult, and it
is no surprise that those in the church who have grown comfortable hiding
behind a didactic wall are howling that Pope Francis is tearing down that
wall.” While I have my quibbles with what the Holy Father said, I think Dave
captures the most important element of what he said. Those of us who love
didactic certainty need to examine ourselves to strive constantly to ensure
that our actions are motivated by love.

Janet
E. Smith is the Father Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart
Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan. Image via Wikimedia Commons. This piece
has been updated (09/26/13), at the request of the author.